Talk:Julius Caesar
Caesar was monogamous, was he not? Turtle Fan 18:43, April 9, 2010 (UTC) :In so far as he was married to one woman at a time, yes. He was also a voracious adulterer, so he was hell and gone from monogamous from the sexual stand-point. TR 18:51, April 9, 2010 (UTC) ::Yes, well, it's legality we're concerned with here. I suppose we could start an Adulterers category if we wanted. The danger would be that editing that many articles in so short a time would cause the site to crash. Turtle Fan 18:56, April 9, 2010 (UTC) :::We'd probably be better off creating a Non-Adulterers Category, actually. TR 18:58, April 9, 2010 (UTC) ::::Non-Adulterers would not quite align with Non-Adults, but it wouldn't be too far off. Turtle Fan 19:00, April 9, 2010 (UTC) :::::The Race and most other alien groups would probably also join in. TR 19:02, April 9, 2010 (UTC) ::::::Most of Turtledove's aliens don't have sexuality related to their people's family life at all. (IFiMT?) Concepts like adultery seem irrelevant where they're concerned. It would be like asking whether a newly hatched crocodile could get enough milk. So, yes, I suppose they're non-adulterers. ::::::I have from time to time idly wondered what happens with those ginger-addicted married couples to whom the US granted asylum. They must socialize with other Lizards, and ginger use runs rampant in the ex-pat community. Certainly a pair of hard-core drug addicts wouldn't limit themselves to purely teetotaling companions. So from time to time the females must go into heat in the presence of other males, and the males must be exposed to other females' pheromones. Every Lizard sex scene with a Lizard POV has emphasized that the various stimuli were irresistible, overwhelming. Surely the commitment to monogamy could not withstand them. Turtle Fan 20:33, April 9, 2010 (UTC) :::::::If memory serves, monogamy took hold at least in part because couples were discovering that their repeated mating was pleasurable and inspired further attachment. The original couple were friends first, which is pretty big in the Race to begin with, and their friendship intensified. While the ginger started the process, the feelings were probably real. So I would imagine that couples in that situation probably set some ground rules as to when they would use ginger, so as to avoid the awkward accidental mating problem. ::::::::Sexual attraction and emotional attachment were completely and entirely detached within the Race's instinctive social behaviors. Maybe the realization that this was not a universal constant got them to start thinking thoughts which led them to transcend their evolution. Maybe they discovered doing the same person over and over was more fun--they could learn each other's fetishes, favorite positions, special erogenous zones, things like that. That happened in A World of Difference when Lamra became the first female to have multiple intimate encounters in Minervan history. Maybe they were touched by the idea that their friends cared enough about them to learn such things. ::::::::But when mating stimuli were present, everything else fell away. Veffani and Ttomalss found Felless repulsive, disgusting. Now I've known a few women in my day who have left me with a similar impression. Several of them have been drop-dead gorgeous besides; but that doesn't matter, I couldn't feel attraction to them even if they threw themselves at me. Their abrasive personalities give them built-in boner-shrivellers. But when Felless sprayed one of the above males with pheromones . . . don't be standing between the two of them! And all the Conquest Fleet veterans who'd spent all those years feeling so superior to their horny human subjects and neighbors put the randiest seventeen-year-old to shame when the ginger-using females showed up; they thought nothing of fucking in the middle of the street, with hundreds of Big Uglies watching. (When it happened in independent not-empires, I would have liked to have seen human police arrest them for public indecency.) ::::::::So the only way for these Lizard monogamists to stay faithful would have been to avoid ginger use in mixed company. Ginger tasters were functioning members of society, no less so than cigarette smokers; but their addiction was as severe as cocaine or meth. Prolonged social interactions in which they could not taste would have them jonesing, and breaking up the social gathering so they could go indulge would be counterintuitive, since it had always been used to enhance social experiences. ::::::::You'd have to have Boys'- and Girls' Nights Out. But the idea of segregation of the genders in social settings was thoroughly alien to them--remember how confused Nesseref was when they sent her to a women's dorm? Then again, these are people already inclined to push the envelope with regard to Lizard sexual norms, so maybe they were more inclined to roll with those punches. Maybe it meant males hung out with males and females with females with ever-increasing frequency. Maybe they developed seperate masculine and feminine societies, something in which their culture had always been pretty lacking. That would erode the friendships which had been the bedrock of their marriages to begin with, wouldn't it? Turtle Fan 21:45, April 9, 2010 (UTC) :::::::Or they just became swingers. TR 20:52, April 9, 2010 (UTC) ::::::::I don't see how they could avoid it. Even if they didn't use ginger in front of members of the opposite sex, there was the mating season when all the females came into heat naturally. ::::::::Actually, while I appreciate the effort HT went to give us a three-dimensional alien society, but there really are a lot of elements to it that are best not to think about. That might have to do with why I've never gotten my all-Lizards story. ::::::::That, or the fact that I've never found a way to bring my request to HT's attention, let alone make it appealing to him. Turtle Fan 21:45, April 9, 2010 (UTC) Atlantis section I'm thinking the Atlantis bit can go to lit refs. It's about The Gallic War more than Caesar himself.JonathanMarkoff (talk) 09:23, May 30, 2017 (UTC) Videssos Section I don't remember Scaurus wondering about the fate of Gaul all that often. I do remember that both he and other "Ronam" invoked Caesar's memory for all sorts of odds and ends. I'd like to put in a general comment to that effect, but I can't really think of a way to say it right now. Let me sleep on it and try tomorrow. Turtle Fan (talk) 07:58, May 31, 2017 (UTC) Videssos template The "Videssos Historical Character" template should probably be changed to "The Legion Cycle (or Videssos Cycle) Historical Character". My understanding is that the original four-book cycle is the only part of the overall series to "cross over" with the history of our world.JonathanMarkoff (talk) 06:23, April 4, 2018 (UTC) :I'll get around to it. TR (talk) 14:28, April 4, 2018 (UTC) :Probably. I originally cated OTL historical figures outside of the story specific character cats because they were historical figures. But as Jonathan points out, they would be referenced only in the Legion Cycle. On the other hand, Turtledove does use parallel actions or statements by his fictional characters. For instance, later in the Legion Cycle Mavrikios Gavras stumbles to his knees as he disembarks on the far side of the Cattle Crossing. He changes the ill omen to a symbolic gesture by grabbing two fists of sand and declaring he holds Videssos with both hands, something Caesar reputedly did on disembarking in Africa. Characters in other series might have done similar things so we should be able to cat the reference somehow. ML4E (talk) 16:25, April 5, 2018 (UTC) ::That's something for OTL Analogy in the Videssos Series, not an in-universe reference to the actual person.JonathanMarkoff (talk) 21:53, April 5, 2018 (UTC)